I am delighted to be returning to Bangladesh in its Golden Jubilee year, and I look forward to celebrating the tremendous achievements of the past half century with friends old and new.
As is known, the current provisions of the EU’s Generalised System of preferences (EU-GSP) scheme are being revised at present in anticipation of the new scheme to be put in place as of January 1, 2024.
Upon reading the news headline for the incident I am about to discuss, I only felt a momentary, dull pain in my gut or thereabouts. Because while it is a shocking incident that would rob you of hope, the elements of the story are all too familiar to us all.
As tensions over the Taiwan Strait mount, everyone needs to think about whether war is inevitable. Ukrainian revolutionary Leon Trotsky once said: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” And if we slip into war by what World War I historian Barbara Tuchman called the March of Folly, can the Great Powers step back from mutual nuclear annihilation?
The year 2020 marked a watershed in global efforts to end tuberculosis (TB) by 2030. First, it was because, by 2020, the TB-affected countries aimed to achieve the first set of “End TB” milestones: a 35 percent reduction in TB deaths, a 20 percent
I have been feeling unwell since October 13. After the mayhem in Cumilla, I knew it wouldn’t be the last. With a broken heart, my father-in-law and I, along with my son, decided to continue with our tradition of puja visits and mandap-hopping, yet we were all deeply disturbed, witnessing the carnage unravelling with a helpless rage.
Today, on October 22, we celebrate National Road Safety Day. But why? Not why we care about safety—the devastating toll of accidents makes it clear why it is important—but why call it Road Safety Day? If we are using roads to travel from place to place, and we want to be able to do so safely, why not call it Safe Travels Day?
I was around 10 when I first heard about the idea of, as it was then known, global warming and how Bangladesh will one day go underwater as sea levels rise.
Bangladesh illustrates a most intriguing and delightful puzzle in international development. After its independence in 1971, it was dismissed
In his historic speech on March 7, 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Nation, declared that our struggle was “a struggle for liberation” and “a struggle for independence”.
It is with a sense of pride and honour that I recollect the events of March 30, 1971 at Jashore Cantonment. My father, Lt Col. Syed Abdul Hai, was commissioned into the Army Medical Corps (AMC) in 1950.
On the eve of March 8, 2021, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) officials were smiling—the 2021 4G auction brought a lot of money to the public exchequer! After 81 rounds, the auction ended with USD 46.75 million/MHz for 15 years, making it a record in recent years.
"Why do they even try? They don’t sound like us!” My mother was referring to the “bong” accents emulated by some of the Indian actors who occupy our living rooms every evening. That does not stop these characters from becoming regular guests of our evening party.
On a dark morning in August 1975, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members were brutally assassinated. His killers wanted to reverse the gains of Bangladesh’s independence, for which Bangabandhu had led a heroic struggle.
It was extremely bold as a vision, highly ambitious as a project, without parallel in scope, crucial in terms of fulfilling a need, exemplary in its execution and unprecedented as a private project in which people’s participation was the main driving force.
For weeks I have been working on this article. I couldn’t get it right. What is the best way to congratulate the people of Bangladesh on the 50th anniversary of the founding of this remarkable country and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman?
Will negotiators from the Global South be barred from attending the United Nations climate summit (COP26) in Glasgow in November because they are not vaccinated against Covid-19?
There are not many moments in one’s life that are truly and deeply felt, and clearly remembered. For me, the night of Thursday, March 25, 1971 in Dhaka, is one of them—one of the most horrific and simultaneously most galvanising moments in my career as a journalist.
